Before getting into actual post, I want to thank Christian at Christian’s Music Musings for so graciously agreeing to be a guest writer today. Christian was at liberty to choose any Woman Musician to write about and he chose the exceptionally talented drummer, Cindy Blackman Santana.

Cindy Blackman Santana

“I feel that music, in general, is the supreme communicator, which crosses all barriers that human beings have implemented upon ourselves around the world … . [M]usic touches people and it just transcends any kind of veil that we put between us. If you look at everything from a spiritual perspective, then we’re not going to have the issues that we have, you know? We won’t hate on each other, we won’t hurt each other, we won’t fight each other.” (DownBeat, October 23, 2020)

Cindy Blackman Santana is a virtuoso jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer. She gained broader prominence beyond jazz circles after playing on the official video of Lenny Kravitz’s 1993 hit Are You Gonna Go My Way and becoming his touring drummer for the next 18 years.

Cindy has also performed and recorded with numerous jazz and other artists like Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, The Isley Brothers, John McLaughlin, Jack Bruce and Joss Stone, as well as Carlos Santana who became her husband in December 2010.

Early Life:
Cindy Blackman Santana was born November 18, 1959 in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She has been attracted to drumming since early childhood, telling music magazine DownBeat her mother would find her using whatever household objects the little girl could find. After begging for years, Cindy finally got a drum kit. “[My mother] thought I would outgrow it. But I never did…I think it is something that my soul has always wanted to do.”

When Cindy was 11, her family relocated to Connecticut where she attended the Hartt School of Music in Hartford. Two years later, she became interested in jazz after listening to Max Roach. At 14, she got her first professional drum set. Cindy attended Berklee College of Music in Boston to study with jazz drummer and teacher Alan Dawson who had also taught one of her drum heroes, Tony Williams.

Musical Beginnings:
In the late 1970s, three semesters into her studies at Berklee College of Music, Cindy left for New York City, after a friend had recommended her for a gig with The Drifters. In addition to becoming a performer, Cindy attended many concerts to watch drummers she admired, including Williams, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey.

Blakey became a close friend and mentor to Cindy. “He really was like a father to me,” she said during a 2001 interview with the Jazz Journalists Association. “I learned a lot just watching him. I asked him a lot of questions about the drums and music — and he answered all of them.” Blakey passed away from lung cancer in October 1990 at the age of 71.

In February 1987, Cindy’s first two compositions appeared on jazz trumpeter Wallace Roney’s debut album Verses. The following year, Cindy released Arcane, a jazz album and her first as a bandleader.

Discography:
As Leader
•  Arcane, with Wallace Roney, Joe Henderson, Kenny Garrett, Larry Willis, Buster Williams, Clarence Seay (1987)
•  Code Red, with Steve Coleman, Wallace Roney, Kenny Barron, Lonnie Plaxico (1990 [1992])
•  Telepathy, with Antoine Roney, Jacky Terrasson, Clarence Seay (1992 [1994])
•  The Oracle, with Gary Bartz, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter (1996)
•  In the Now, with Ravi Coltrane, Jacky Terrasson, Ron Carter (1998)
•  Works on Canvas, with J. D. Allen III, Carlton Holmes, George Mitchell (1999)
•  A Lil’ Somethin’ Somethin’ – The Best of the Muse Years (2000)
•  Someday…, with J. D. Allen III, Carlton Holmes, George Mitchell (2001)
•  Music for the New Millennium, with J. D. Allen III, Carlton Holmes, George Mitchell (2004)
•  Another Lifetime, with Mike Stern and Doug Carn featuring guests Joe Lovano, Vernon Reid, Patrice Rushen, Benny Rietveld and David Santos (2010)
•  Give The Drummer Some (2020)

As Co-Leader or Sidewoman
•With Eddie Allen
  °  Summer Days (2000)
•With Santi Debriano and David Fiuczynski
  °  Trio + Two featuring Greg Osby and Jerry Gonzalez (1991)
•With Melinda Doolittle
  °  Coming Back to You (2009)
•With Kali Z. Fasteau and William Parker
  °  An Alternative Universe (2011)
•With Russell Gunn
  °  Love Requiem (1999)
•With The Isley Brothers and Santana
  °  Power of Peace (2017)
•With Rodney Kendrick
  °  The Colors of Rhythm (2014)
•With Lenny Kravitz
  °  5 (1998)
•With Greg Lewis
  °  Organ Monk (2010)
•With Carlos Martins
  °  Passagem (1996)
•With Wallace Roney
  °  Intuition (1988)
  °  The Standard Bearer (1989)
  °  Obsession (1990)
•With Santana
  °  Corazón (2014)
  °  Corazón: Live From México – Live It To Believe It (2014)
•With Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin
  °  Live at Montreux 2011: Invitation to Illumination (2015)
•With Saxemble
  °  Saxemble (1996)
•With Sonny Simmons
  °  American Jungle (1997)
•With Spectrum Road (Jack Bruce, Vernon Reid, John Medeski, Blackman Santana)
  °  Spectrum Road (2012)
•With Mike Stern
  °  Big Neighborhood (2009)
•With Joss Stone
  °  The Soul Sessions (2003)
  °  Mind Body & Soul (2004)
•With Alicyn Yaffee
  °  Someone Else (2016)
•With Bernie Worrell and John King
  °  Spherical (2023)
•With Various Artists
  °  Black Night – Deep Purple Tribute According to New York, with TM Stevens, Stevie Salas, Corey Glover, Richie Kotzen (1997)

One thing to share:
By 1993, Cindy had established herself as a drummer in New York jazz circles and released two jazz albums as a leader. Then she received a phone call from Lenny Kravitz. After Cindy gave him a demo of her drumming chops over the phone, Kravitz immediately asked her to come to Los Angeles. Her two-week stay there not only resulted in playing on Kravitz’s video for his hit single Are You Gonna Go My Way, but also led to a gig as his touring drummer, which would last for 18 years. Notably, this did not extend to Kravitz’s studio albums, except for one track on his May 1998 studio release 5 – likely reflecting that Kravitz is a multi-instrumentalist and likes to play most or all of the instruments on his studio recordings by himself.

Cindy first played with Santana in the spring of 2010 to fill in for jazz fusion and funk drummer Dennis Chambers. As her web bio puts it, Electricity onstage generated chemistry offstage—Carlos proposed to Cindy during a July 2010 concert, and they married in December. Cindy has since collaborated and toured with Carlos frequently. She plays drums on Santana’s most recent single Let the Guitar Play, which his website notes is a reimagination of his 2021 track Song for Cindy. Cindy is also part of Santana’s current tour An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live.

Official website: https://cindyblackmansantana.com

from Lenny Kravitz/Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)

And, because Christian is such a kind and generous person, he’s included several other links to YouTubes showing Cindy in Action.

In the Now – from In the Now featuring Ravi Coltrane, Jack Terrasson & Ron Carter (1998)
Abracadabra – from Music for the New Millennium (2004)
Blues for Tillmon – from Spectrum Road featuring Jack Bruce, Vernon Reid, John Medeski and Blackman Santana (2012)
The Chamber – Lenny Kravitz live (2014)
Superbad (featuring John McLaughlin) – from Give the Drummer Some (2020)

Sources: Wikipedia; DownBeat; Jazz Journalists Association Library; Cindy Blackman Santana website; Santana website

THANKS AGAIN, CHRISTIAN, FOR BEING A GUEST WRITER TODAY!